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Welsh health boards fail to break- even financially

The accounts of all health boards in Wales have been audited and presented to the National Assembly Credit: PA Wire

Four of Wales' seven health boards failed to break-even over three years, according to a written statement by the Welsh Government.

The accounts of all ten NHS organisations, which include the 7 health boards and Public Health Wales, were audited and presented to the National Assembly.

Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board failed to break even in 2016-17, despite doing so in recent years.

But Betsi Cadwaladr and Hywel Dda University Health Boards have not broken even since before 2014.

The Welsh Government said extra cash was being provided to all boards who failed to meet their targets Credit: PA Wire

Betsi Cadwaladr UHB was placed into special measures in 2015, but the Government said financial issues were not an explicit reason.

The other three boards were placed into "targeted intervention" last September.

The Welsh Government also said additional cash was being provided to all boards failing to meet their targets, to enable them to keep up with financial commitments including paying staff.

According to the report, six of the organisations did meet budget targets.

All NHS accounts in 2016-17 received a clean ‘true and fair’ audit opinion from the Auditor General for Wales. Six out of ten organisations have complied with the statutory three-year break even duty by operating within their budgets over the first three-year period of assessment from April 2014 to March 2017.I look forward to the Auditor General forWales finalising his audit of the Welsh Government’s overall accounts. I am confident this will demonstrate that the health and social services budget has broken even overall in 2016-17 through the actions that have been taken to manage the deficits incurred by the four health boards in 2016-17.